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Bent   /bɛnt/   Listen
verb
Bent  v.  Imp. & p. p. of Bend.


adjective
Bent  adj., past part.  
1.
Changed by pressure so as to be no longer straight; crooked; as, a bent pin; a bent lever.
2.
Strongly inclined toward something, so as to be resolved, determined, set, etc.; said of the mind, character, disposition, desires, etc., and used with on; as, to be bent on going to college; he is bent on mischief.


noun
Bent  n.  
1.
The state of being curved, crooked, or inclined from a straight line; flexure; curvity; as, the bent of a bow. (Obs.)
2.
A declivity or slope, as of a hill. (R.)
3.
A leaning or bias; proclivity; tendency of mind; inclination; disposition; purpose; aim. "With a native bent did good pursue."
4.
Particular direction or tendency; flexion; course. "Bents and turns of the matter."
5.
(Carp.) A transverse frame of a framed structure.
6.
Tension; force of acting; energy; impetus. (Archaic) "The full bent and stress of the soul."
Synonyms: Predilection; turn. Bent, Bias, Inclination, Prepossession. These words agree in describing a permanent influence upon the mind which tends to decide its actions. Bent denotes a fixed tendency of the mind in a given direction. It is the widest of these terms, and applies to the will, the intellect, and the affections, taken conjointly; as, the whole bent of his character was toward evil practices. Bias is literally a weight fixed on one side of a ball used in bowling, and causing it to swerve from a straight course. Used figuratively, bias applies particularly to the judgment, and denotes something which acts with a permanent force on the character through that faculty; as, the bias of early education, early habits, etc. Inclination is an excited state of desire or appetency; as, a strong inclination to the study of the law. Prepossession is a mingled state of feeling and opinion in respect to some person or subject, which has laid hold of and occupied the mind previous to inquiry. The word is commonly used in a good sense, an unfavorable impression of this kind being denominated a prejudice. "Strong minds will be strongly bent, and usually labor under a strong bias; but there is no mind so weak and powerless as not to have its inclinations, and none so guarded as to be without its prepossessions."


Bent  n.  
1.
A reedlike grass; a stalk of stiff, coarse grass. "His spear a bent, both stiff and strong."
2.
(Bot.) A grass of the genus Agrostis, esp. Agrostis vulgaris, or redtop. The name is also used of many other grasses, esp. in America.
3.
Any neglected field or broken ground; a common; a moor. (Obs.) "Bowmen bickered upon the bent."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Bent" Quotes from Famous Books



... wrapped his shawl around her, and bidding her come early in the morning he walked with her down the road. Then he bade her "good- night." The moon shone brightly on the narrow path before them. He stood and watched the bent little figure as it staggered down the road, and waited until it had passed the little graveyard and reached the curve of the hill, where it turned and stood for a moment, a mere atom of suffering outlined against ...
— The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales • Bret Harte
... for a Japanese, when bent upon some deed of violence, the end of which, in his belief, justifies the means, to carry about with him a document, such as that translated above, in which he sets forth his motives, that his character may be cleared ...
— Tales of Old Japan • Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford
... spring. There is scarcely a breath of wind stirring, and one might almost imagine it to be April. Tom Peregrine, clad in his best Sunday homespun, passes along his well-worn track through the rough grass beyond the water, intent on visiting his vermin traps, or bent on some form of destruction,—for he is never happy unless he is killing. My old friend, the one-legged cock pheasant, who for the third year in succession has contrived to escape our annual battue, comes up to my feet to take the bread I offer. When he was flushed by the ...
— A Cotswold Village • J. Arthur Gibbs
... son, I wept my life away; For thee through hell's eternal dungeons stray: Nor came my fate by lingering pains and slow, Nor bent the silver-shafted queen her bow; No dire disease bereaved me of my breath; Thou, thou, my son, wert my disease and death; Unkindly with my love my son conspired, For thee I ...
— The Odyssey of Homer • Homer, translated by Alexander Pope
... Dangerfield, but my employer vetoed that proposition. It was a vivid flash of colour. The brightly painted wagons with their canvas tops, the red-shirted men, black of hair and eyes, olive of skin, and graceful in their laziness; the older women bare-headed, bent of shoulder, and brilliantly shrouded in shawls; the younger women straight as arrows, bold and keen of glance, and decked in ribbons and jewelry, and on every hand swarms of gipsy children, more or less clothed. The blue smoke of ...
— John Henry Smith - A Humorous Romance of Outdoor Life • Frederick Upham Adams


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